In the course, you will learn how to plan and conduct qualitative and quantitative research. Overall, the focus will be on quantitative studies, i.e., how to develop and implement a questionnaire based on a research question.

This will include:

1. an introduction of fundamental terms, concepts  and methods in qualitative and quantitative research, including quantitative methods such as self-completion questionnaire, structured observation, content analysis, and qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups, ethnography and participant observation;
2. hands-on development of a self-completion questionnaire, including topics such as: how to decide whether a research question requires quantitative or qualitative methods; how to relate the empirical study to theory; how to design a study (objectivity, reliability, validity); how to formulate one's own research question, related hypotheses, and questions suitable for gathering empirical data relevant for verifying or falsifying the hypotheses;
3. by the end of the course, the participants' questionnaires will be in a state that the questionnaire can be set up online for data collection so that the empirical data will be available for the follow up course in the Summer Semester.

Note: This course provides you with the theoretical background and skills to define, setup up and conduct an empirical study on your own. Therefore, the course is a prerequisite for a follow-up course in the Summer Semester where the course participants design and conduct empirical studies, ideally on their own data collected during the Winter Semester.

"Students from other faculties or universities will receive a place on the course subject to room capacities."

For the successful participation of the course, the following criteria must be fulfilled:

- Attendance (at least 80%), i.e., as the course is blocked within 4 days, you should not miss more than 1 hour per day.

- During the course: submission of partial services (literature-based research question, hypotheses derived from one's own research question, set of questions to be part of the questionnaire, (pre-)final version of the questionnaire).

-  Submission of a final research paper (by the end of the semester) covering the research question and related hypotheses, relevant background literature, explanations how the questions in the final questionnaire contribute to assessing the hypotheses, as well as a copy of the online version of the questionnaire.